Hi guys
well its been 76 hrs with tesco broadband and up to now all looks good.... the engineer visited and carried out the changeover and i was transfered from bt broadband to tesco bb in less than 40 minutes ...
with some guys reporting loss of broadband for up to 4 hrs and loss of phone for 30 minutes this was impressive ... also the engineer( bt open reach ) was extremely helpful and also discovered alot of noise on the line.. this was diagnosed and fixed during the visit so i must thank him for this
THE TESCO WIRELESS ROUTER :
the TG580 supplied by tesco BB may look basic,however this reminds me of the voyager 605 i received when i started with BT... allthough nothing amazing the voyager 605 never dropped a connection in 2 years... and as soon as we started using the home hub connection dropouts occured at least once a month
for everyday use and indoor wireless tasks the TG580 is fine... i cant comment on outdoor use but i suppose it should be fine up to around 30 meters
the built in options can be accessed by entering 192.168.1.254 in your browsers address bar and entering "administrator" as username and your wireless key (caps lock ) as your password... you then have access to wireless and network(Lan) settings and other useful options ( inc toolbox )
CONNECTION SPEEDS AND PING :
since ive only been live for 3 days i cant comment on long terms speeds however heres the results of a speedtest using my local speedtest.net server in liverpool
so lets look at the results.... download speed of 4.8meg is fine ... and considering i was only getting 5.4meg with BT but it cost me 10 times as much this is more than acceptable... also remember my connection is still within the 10 day sync period were the exchanges dslams find the optimal speed for my line.....
upload speeds are actually better than BT with a improvement of 0.2meg... this will be handy for my wife who uploads music she composes to a website called soundclick ...
ping speeds are again acceptable however i use the command prompt ping test which is more accurate... using this i had 4 packets sent and received and received a average ping of 27ms... this is normal
COST :
well this was the main reason for moving from BT to tesco BB ... £2-99 for the broadband... £11 for line rental and £7-99 for anytime calls... overall just over £20 a month which is excellent.. and this is £3 cheaper than what i was paying for unlimited broadband from BT (£24 per month )
also im impressed with the manual payment option from tesco.. if like me you dont like direct debit you can pay manually on tesco,s self care webpage ... this is safe and reliable and the monthly charge is simply taken from there once you have paid it in
SETTING UP :
since ive been a pc enthusiast for over a decade the set up was very easy... no drivers or set up disks... simply connect the rj-11 cable to the supplied micro-filter ( note : allways use the supplied filters ... dont use your old filter... granted the old one would probally be ok but its good pratice to use the bundled filters that come with the router ) ... after this connect any rj-45 cables ( ethernet ) you need to network and then connect the router to the mains using the provided power adapter.... do not turn this on until
1) the enginner confirms your phone and adsl is active or
2) you receive the sms message from tesco confirming you are live
once you have received these confirmations turn on the router using the button on the back... then leave for approx 5 minutes until all the lights are active... then turn on your pc and let windows connect to the new network ( note : since your new connection is in essence a complete new network and may have a new ip addresss you may receive the new connection message in windows .... select home network and then ok .... then restart your pc.... this isnt nessecary but again its good pratice after any pc configuration
SUPPORT AND CUSTOMER SERVICE :
ive heard some bad storys regarding tesco,s customer service,however from the minute i signed up i have been treated with the upmost respect... the guys at tesco have gone the extra mile and have helped me with all stages of the connection process
even down the the payment issues they were so helpful and sorted it out so i could manually on their selfcare webpage... and all communications were on time and clearly explained
FINAL THOUGHTS :
well allthough its only been a few days early indications are good... you are allways going to find negative reviews with any isp... and these are normally the ones that find there way on the forums or isp reviews....
so if your looking to make some savings on your broadband and phone then i can honestly say tesco broadband and phone are worth considering .....
good :
price
support and service
ease of use